THE ASHES
Family Oleaceæ
In winter there is little to attract us in ash trees beyond a certain
bold strength of trunk and limb. There is no grace or delicacy whatever
in the branches, the twigs are coarsely moulded, and the buds are thick
and leathery. The popular prejudice existing against ash trees in
summer, when the contrast of their light foliage and heavy trunks makes
it less deserved, is fully warranted in winter; but if the ash is ugly,
the wood of few trees is as generally useful, and its literary history
dates back to the “Odyssey” and to the Eddas of Norse mythology.
The generic name, _Fraxinus_, comes from the Latin _phraxis_
(separation), and probably alludes to the wood of the European species
which splits easily. There are about fifteen different species in the
United States, three of which are found commonly in New England. The
green ash, which used to be considered a distinct species, is now
thought to be a variety of the red ash.
All the ashes have opposite leaf-scars.
[Sidenote: White or American Ash
_Fraxinus americana_]
_A large tree with a straight trunk. Bark furrowed with irregular
ridges, the hollows forming diamond shapes frequently. Buds smooth,
thick and hard like leather, and a rusty brown color. Twigs smooth,
without down. Leaf-scars opposite, and the stems are flattened at the
nodes. Cross-shaped branching of the twigs against the sky._
[Illustration: AMERICAN ASH
_Fraxinus americana_
Page 36
]
The white ash is a tree which we find frequently along roadsides and
in the woods everywhere in New England. The characteristics which
distinguish it from other trees in winter are the close diamond-shaped
fissures of the bark, the rusty brown buds, and often the old clusters
of paddle-shaped fruit hanging on the tree. On some ash trees black,
berry-like excrescences are found hanging in dry clusters on the ends
of the branches. These are not clusters of fruit, as might at first
be supposed, but the diseased and undeveloped remains of the panicles
of staminate flowers which have been injured by mites,—curious freaks
resembling oak-apples and the outgrowths of other insect poisoned
plants. Occasionally these berry-like clusters have been gathered as
seeds, by mistake, instead of the true fruit, a mistake which does
not seem remarkable when the fruit-like appearance of the clusters is
considered.
The wood of the white ash is heavy, tough, and strong, and is much used
for agricultural implements, tool handles and oars, for the interior
finish of houses and in the construction of carriages. Emerson tells
of an ash which was felled in Granville many years ago, the wood of
which furnished three thousand rake stalks. The tree from which I took
the following photograph, stands on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts,
and measures over fourteen feet in circumference, five feet from the
ground. This trunk illustrates the massive strength which gives the ash
its one æsthetic quality.
[Sidenote: Red or Downy Ash
_Fraxinus pennsylvanica_]
_This tree resembles the white ash, but is distinguished from it by the
down on the recent shoots. It is a smaller tree than the white ash,
more spreading in shape. The twigs are less coarse and branch more
frequently, with less space between the buds,—shorter internodes,—on
shoots of the same age. Buds inconspicuous, smaller and blacker than
those of the white ash. Bark closely furrowed, like that of the white
ash. Leaf-scars opposite._
The red ash is much less coarsely moulded than the white ash, and in
its leafless season, particularly, the contrast between its branches
and those of the white ash is plainly seen. The fissures in the bark of
the red ash seem a little finer and nearer together than those of the
white ash bark on trees of the same age. The soft down on the recent
shoots remains through the winter; and this, with the finer twigs,
which branch more frequently, and the smaller, darker buds, makes the
tree easily distinguished from the white ash in winter,—more easily
even than in summer.
The staminate flowers of the red ash are afflicted by mites in the same
way as those of the white ash, producing unsightly clusters which hang
on the tree all winter.
The wood is much less valuable than that of the white ash.
[Sidenote: Black Ash
_Fraxinus nigra_]
_A slender tree, 40 to 70 feet high. Trunk dark gray, often disfigured
with knobs. The buds are black, and the young shoots greenish. Coarse
twigs; opposite leaf-scars._
The black ash is distinguished from the white and red ashes by its
darker buds and by having a less pinched, flattened appearance at the
nodes on the stem. It grows throughout New England in swamps, in wet
woods, and in moist, muddy ground near rivers. In the woods its trunk
is found frequently without branches to a great height, and Emerson
calls it the most slender deciduous tree to be found in the forest. It
is sometimes seventy or eighty feet high, with a trunk scarcely a foot
in diameter.
The wood of the black ash is heavy but not strong. It is used for
fences, for the interior finish of houses, and, after being separated
into thin strips, it is used in making baskets and the bottoms of
chairs. Its sap was an old remedy for earache, obtained by holding a
green branch before the fire.
The specific name, _nigra_, refers to the color of the buds.
[Sidenote: European Ash
_Fraxinus excelsior_]
_A large tree, with a lofty, spreading head and short, thick trunk. The
bark is ash-colored when old, and dark gray when young. Very black buds
distinguish it from the American species. Opposite leaf-scars._
The European ash is planted frequently along roadsides and in our parks
and gardens. It is indigenous to Northern, Central, and Southern
Europe. Its jet black buds distinguish it from other ash trees. In
the chapter called “A Visit to an old Bachelor,” in Mrs. Gaskell’s
“Cranford,” Mary Smith tells us how she was talking to Mr. Holbrook in
the fields, and how he quoted poetry to himself and enjoyed the trees
and clouds and glimpses of distant pastures, and how he suddenly turned
sharp round and asked, “Now, what color are ash buds in March?”
“Is the man going mad? thought I. He is very like Don Quixote. ‘What
color are they, I say?’ repeated he vehemently. ‘I am sure I don’t
know, sir,’ said I, with the meekness of ignorance. ‘I knew you didn’t.
No more did I—an old fool that I am!—till this young man comes and
tells me. Black as ash buds in March. And I’ve lived all my life in
the country; more shame for me not to know. Black: they are jet black,
madam.”
The “young man” he refers to is Tennyson, and the quotation, “Black as
ash buds in the front of March,” is a simile used in “The Gardener’s
Daughter,” and it shows how acute Tennyson’s powers of observation
were, and how true his descriptions of nature.
The buds of the ash open later in the spring than those of other
trees, and the leaves unfold very slowly. Tennyson also noted this
characteristic:—
“Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,
Delaying as the tender ash delays
To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?”
The rare fitness of this simile might pass unheeded if we did not study
trees first and poetry afterwards.
In Europe ash seeds were used for medicine. They were called _lingua
avis_ by the old apothecaries, on account of a fancied resemblance to
the tongues of birds; young ash seeds were also pickled and used in
salads. Evelyn says the wood “is of all others the sweetest of our
forest fuelling, and the fittest for ladies’ chambers.”
The horsechestnuts, the maples, and the ashes are the three genera of
large trees which have opposite leaf-scars.